Born and raised in The Liberties area of Dublin, Imelda May has become one of the UK and Ireland’s most celebrated female artists. A true creative, Imelda immerses herself in art across many forms, as a singer, songwriter, actor, producer, poet, illustrator and storyteller. Her self-written and produced album Love Tattoo (2008) remains the best-selling album of all time by a homegrown female artist in Ireland and her most recent album 11 Past the Hour (2021) marks her fourth Number 1 album in Ireland and fourth Top 10 in the UK. Imelda’s recent albums are a departure from her early rockabilly revival style with a sound that sits firmly outside of any sharply defined genre box, widely spanning blues, rock, soul, gospel and jazz.
Imelda was discovered by Jools Holland, who asked her to support him on tour, and has gone on to perform alongside legendary artists including Lou Reed, Bono, Tom Jones, Noel Gallagher, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Jeff Goldblum and Ronnie Wood. She has performed all over the world in front of royalty and politicians including Barack Obama. From the 52nd Grammy Awards with Jeff Beck to singing the Irish national anthem in Las Vegas ahead of the Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor fight in 2017 with a reported TV audience of 1 billion people across 200 countries.
Her TV work spans from co-producing and presenting The Imelda May Show series for RTE in 2018, co-hosting BBC’s Later with Jools Holland, to several recent productions co-produced for Sky Arts including the two part Voices of Ireland which won the Best Specialist Factual Award at the RTS Ireland Television Awards in 2022. Imelda curated, co-produced and starred in a festive special titled Christmas in Ireland: Imelda & Friends with Red Shoe Productions for SKY Arts and Tourism Ireland in 2023, a creative relationship which followed with the recent critical acclaim for her programme studying the lives of the Yeats sisters, Lily and Lolly Yeats: The Forgotten Yeats Sisters in 2024.
In recent years Imelda has also turned her talent to the silver screen, appearing in her first major film role alongside James Purefoy and Maggie Steed in Fisherman’s Friends: One and All, the sequel to the hit comedy Fisherman's Friends. The film entered the top 5 box office best sellers after its release in 2022. Her stunning portrayal of ‘villan’ Eve in The People Before, based on the psychological thriller by Charlotte Northedge, has just debuted at the Galway Film Festival and is set for theatrical release later this year. It will be followed by her role as Pierce Brosnan’s wife in Four Letters of Love alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne in 2025.
Not only has Imelda sold millions of records worldwide and forged a successful career on screen, she is also a passionate activist and accomplished poet. Her poem “You Don’t Get To Be Racist and Irish” evoked an incredible response on social media with the IRE government using it for their ‘ReThink Ireland’ campaign on billboards throughout the country and has since been included in the Irish curriculum. In 2021 she released her debut poetry book A Lick & A Promise which instantly debuted at No.8 in the Irish Times Bestsellers Chart (Hardback Non Fiction) and has since been reprinted in addition to a paperback and audiobook.
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